Defending Olympic gold medalist fencer Lee Kiefer has ‘secret weapon’

Before the Notre Dame fencing team competed in the 2017 NCAA championships, Lee Kiefer and her head coach, Gia Kvaratskhelia, discussed how to address the team before the matches.

Kvaratskhelia said he planned to keep the conversation mellow and calm, intentionally excluding talking about winning or losing the competition. Lee, a senior and team captain, nodded throughout the conversation. 

Yet as Kvaratskhelia turned around, Kiefer ran to him, grabbing him with both hands and shaking him.

"We're going to win it! We are going to win it, Gia! There's no other way!" Kiefer said.

Kvaratskhelia's eyes sparkle thinking of the memory.

"Here's a 90-pound (girl) who literally could lift me up in the air," Kvaratskhelia said to Fighting Irish Media. "That's a force. I really felt it. The other thing I felt was that that was it; we were really going to win it that year."

Kiefer's energy spurred not only an individual foil title and Most Outstanding Player award but also helped earn the Fighting Irish a national title.

Seven years after college, Kiefer still brings ferocity, versatility and finesse to her matches. The 5 foot 4 foilist is small in stature, but anyone who encounters her feels her power and strength. 

Kiefer currently balances an international fencing career while attending the University of Kentucky School of Medicine. She advocates for reproductive rights and volunteers at the Kentucky Health Justice Network. She regularly schedules time to call her 94-year-old grandmother to brighten her day.

The Filipino American earned four individual NCAA championships in foil with Notre Dame. She has 13 individual Pan-American championships and will compete in her fourth Olympics in Paris. In the last Olympics, Kiefer earned an individual gold medal in foil, becoming the first American in history to do so. Currently, she ranks No. 1 in the world as a foilist.

Her greatness is not by chance. Fencing is a family affair for the Kiefers.

Kiefer's father walked on to the fencing team as a freshman at Duke. Within a year, he had earned the title of captain and fallen in love with the sport.

"My parents threw me into the sport, and I didn't have a choice at first, but then I grew to love it," the Versailles, Kentucky, native said. "I'm obsessed with it to this day."

Her older sister, Alexandra, fenced at Harvard, earning an NCAA foil championship. Kiefer and her younger brother, Axel, fenced on the same team at Notre Dame. 

"We grew up practicing with each other, so we've had a good amount of fights," Kiefer told Fighting Irish Media. "But we also understand each other better than anyone else in the world."

While her family propelled her success, Kiefer's husband, Gerek Meinhardt, a four-time Olympic fencer and national champion at Notre Dame, has also shaped her career. 

"It's really fun," Kiefer said. "It's really fulfilling to not have a work-life balance."

In addition to training together, the couple study medicine together. While they have paused medical school to pursue the Olympics, Kiefer appreciates the strength of their relationships in every aspect of their lives.

"This will actually be my fourth Games with my partner," Kiefer said. "I think it's my secret weapon, having someone I train with, someone who helps me on all the bad days, to be there in the stands during my event, kind of pushing me forward."

As Kiefer heads into her fourth Olympics in Paris, she reflects on the journey of her lifelong career.

"At my first Olympics, I was 18 years old, and now I'm 30 years old," she said. "One of the reasons that I'm still fencing is because I feel like I can still get so much better and still grow. And that sounds surprising — like, you have an Olympic medal, and you're ranked No. 1 in the world. But the nuances are so fun."

Now, Kiefer looks to continue her excellence in Paris and enjoy the sport with her husband.

"History books are written by excellent people," Kvaratskhelia told Fighting Irish Media, "and Lee is one of them."